Before

Veneers with no or little tooth reduction

The patient’s goals were to straighten his smile, close diastemas (gaps between teeth), and to make his teeth show more evenly in his smile. There was interest in brightening the teeth, but not if it meant bleaching for very long. He was open to increasing brightness if it could be done with the restorations. The patient would not consider orthodontics as an option. He was getting married in 8 weeks and his fiance encouraged him to do it before the wedding. Read more of this story.

After

Prep-less Veneers - Little or no drilling

Seven prep-less veneers were done to improve his smile with only subtle reduction of tooth structure at the gum line. No temporaries were needed because it was difficult to see the important and often skipped preparation lines tucked underneath the gumline. Creating a receiving margin improves the longterm gingival health and reduces possibility of marginal staining years after delivery. In the hands of a specially trained technician, these E Max monolithic porcelain veneers can be thinned to 0.2mm in thickness.

Minimal Tooth Preparation Philosophy

There are many attractive reasons why the practitioner would want a case to be minimal preparation. When minimal tooth reduction is done, there is less preparation time and, thus, a shorter appointment. Anesthetic is either not needed or it is used sparingly. The fact that no or limited tooth structure is removed means intermediate provisional restorations are not required. Although accurate impressions are just as critical with minimal-preparation techniques, the invasiveness and difficulty of the impression technique is diminished. With less preparation, there is a likelihood of retaining more enamel, which increases bond strength and the long-term integrity of the margins. This adds to the durability and longevity of the final restorations. If, after completion of the evaluation steps above, there are a few areas of limitation that are not global in nature, this is where minimal preparation comes into play.